Sony stops selling its Xperia Tablet S

JAPANESE GADGET MAKER Sony has halted sales of its water resistant Xperia tablet just one month after launch, after gaps were found between the screen and the case.

Reuters reports that this is a result of a manufacturing flaw at the Chinese plant where the tablet is made. A Sony spokeswoman told Reuters that the firm has not yet decided when it will resume sales.

According to Sony, the tablet is designed for "real-life use around the home and outdoors", which we think means that it is okay to take the tablet outside when it's raining. Though we wouldn't advise doing that now.

The successor to the original Sony Tablet S also features Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 9.4in 1280x800 touchscreen, an 8MP rear-facing camera, a 1MP front-facing video calling camera and battery life of up to 12 hours. The Xperia Tablet S is also thinner than Sony's first tablet, measuring a skinny 8.8mm.

UpdateSony came back to us with a statement and said, "Sony has identified that a limited number of Xperia Tablet S models released in September 2012 may not meet the stated splash-proof specification due to a minor space between the display panel and the back of the product.

"Models SGPT121, SGPT122, and SGPT123 are potentially subject to this issue. Sony has consequently suspended sales of the product in the UK & Ireland."

Sony said it is identifying the affected serial number ranges and preparing a voluntary free inspection programme for the impacted models. µ